http://www.mkleyne.com/ Footsteps2 en-us Maarten Kleyne RSS - Mkleyne.com - Visual artist Maarten Kleyne http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/creative+festival+offset+2012+dublin After some heavy pondering I finally decided to attend the OFFSET event in Dublin this March, a 3 days long creative event about art and design. The list of speakers is absolutely amazing so I just could not miss out. There are a lot of speakers that will definitely have some inspiring and motivating talks. Here are some that I totally want to check out. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:50:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/creative+festival+offset+2012+dublin http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/trends+in+cover+art+cd+covers+and+originality I label myself as a designer for music, with a preference for cover art, so I figured it would be nice if I would write more on-topic about that on my blog. After writing my previous post I thought: It is relevant and I like it, so why not write more about it? So I am just going to. I will try figuring out several approaches on how to write more about CD design and this is the first of a few subjects I will be delving into: trends in cover art. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:24:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/trends+in+cover+art+cd+covers+and+originality http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/venting+my+thoughts+on+cover+art Here is my opinion about cover art, which is based on my personal thoughts on the subject as well as my ambitions as a designer for music. I have to admit that these thoughts are not entirely my own. There are musicians (mostly Steven Wilson) who have influenced my way of thinking over the past few years, so you could say that I adopted their beliefs. They shook me and made me think, they made me shape my opinion and it became something I firmly stand for. It even formed my ambitions as a designer for music. Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:34:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/venting+my+thoughts+on+cover+art http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/ambitions+-+the+one+i+did+not+make Two days ago I posted a message on my Twitter and some other channels about having a moment of fulfillment; since I have crossed off all but one of my ambitions from the list for 2011. That raised the question from a few people about what that one ambitions was that I did not achieve. I was actually quite surprised to see that of every ambition on that list the only one people asked me about was the one which I did not achieve. (I guess that is also due to how I phrased the message.) Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:57:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/ambitions+-+the+one+i+did+not+make http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/massive+street+art+-+the+work+of+aryz Here is another inspirational street artist with jaw-dropping work you definitely must see. The term massive can be taken quite literally when it comes to the artworks of Aryz, a lot of it is freaking huge. This gifted street artist enhances the look of structures all over the world and the his work is astonishing to see. This post contains some previews of Aryz his work. Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:59:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/massive+street+art+-+the+work+of+aryz http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/confessing+about+what+i+have+done+for+universal A lot of design agencies and freelancers have done work for major brands at some point in their career, brands such as: Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Rabobank, Universal and so forth. More than often though I cannot figure out what it is that the person or agency has done for said client(s). In my opinion; the brand on itself is not that interesting, the work that is made for it is. With that said I looked at my own list of selected clients and saw that I do not show the work I did for one of them. With this post I will correct that right now. Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:52:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/confessing+about+what+i+have+done+for+universal http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/perpetual+queen+exhibited+at+stattmarkt+berlin A week ago Jenaro de Rosenzweig Dyckhoff surprised me with an e-mail saying that the collaboration artwork we made a year ago would probably be exhibited and sold at some event in Berlin. Today I received the exiting news that we are on: Our collaboration piece Perpetual Queen will be a part of the Stattmarkt event in Berlin on the 17th and 18th of December. Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:43:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/perpetual+queen+exhibited+at+stattmarkt+berlin http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/amazing+paintings+by+jeremy+geddes I believe a lot of designers are familiar with the work of Jeremy Geddes, especially his recurring work with cosmonauts set in somber urban scenes. I have been a fan of his work for a couple of years now, so I figured it was about time I shared it in a blog post. For those who have not seen Jeremy his work before, here are a few pieces which I think are absolutely amazing. Keep in mind: the man has much more amazing paintings. Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:43:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/amazing+paintings+by+jeremy+geddes http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/extensive+case+study+on+the+gomedia+zine A while ago the awesome folks at GoMedia asked me if I was interested in writing a tutorial/case study. I was absolutely honored by the inquiry so I obviously took the opportunity. The result of that was released today: an extensive case study and tutorial about the album design I recently made for Andrew Danso. Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:10:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/extensive+case+study+on+the+gomedia+zine http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/carved+in+stone+the+remarkable+street+art+of+vhils Quite recently I discovered the work of Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, a Portuguese street artist. Not only does he add paint on a wall, Vhils creates his work using the wall itself. He drills, carves, rips and blasts his portraits into walls and other materials. I am a fan of street arts and I was baffled when I found this refreshing artist and his work on the web. I think Vhils his work is absolutely brilliant, so I obviously had to share. Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:52:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/carved+in+stone+the+remarkable+street+art+of+vhils http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/minor+website+update+-+social+media+sharing+options This weekend I quickly mentioned on Twitter and Google+ that I added some social media sharing buttons to my website. This post is a more elaborate mention of that. After a long period of refusing to add said buttons to my website I finally convinced myself to place them. So why? Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/minor+website+update+-+social+media+sharing+options http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+malazan+book+of+the+fallen This post is about the epic fantasy book series written by Steven Erikson: The Malazan Book of the Fallen. A series which highly interests me and has occasionally rooted an artwork concept in my mind which I just had to write down. Yes, I find it inspirational. This post is also a bit on how I feel about cover art. Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:10:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+malazan+book+of+the+fallen http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/mars1+the+imaginative+art+of+mario+martinez This guy his work totally grabbed my full attention when I discovered it quite some time ago. It is no secret that I am a huge sucker for fantasy and highly imaginative scenes in art. So when I first found Mario his surrealistic and abstract work I was blown away. Knowing that this man traditionally hand paints most (or maybe all) of it makes it truly remarkable. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:55:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/mars1+the+imaginative+art+of+mario+martinez http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/blog+activities+and+absence It has been a while since I posted my previous blog item and perhaps you wondered why that is, or you did not. Regardless of that I want to use this post to tell you about what I have been up to. I guess that is my way of saying: I am still here! This post also includes some previews of projects that I am allowed to release in full later on – hopefully – this month or early next month. Go straight down to the first image in this post to see those, if you do not want to read my ranting. Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:15:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/blog+activities+and+absence http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/reid+miles+inspirational+jazz+art About two weeks ago I was commissioned to create the album artwork for Rob Mostert his new album. Rob is an amazing jazz musician and he recorded his new album with no one less than Rudy van Gelder, the legendary Blue Note recording engineer. Because I was not really familiar with jazz music or its art I made myself do a considerable amount of research. Especially because the client wanted to capture the genuine Blue Note style in the artwork, so I had to figure out that style. While doing research I discovered another legend in the Blue Note jazz world, namely: Reid Miles. Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:13:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/reid+miles+inspirational+jazz+art http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/13+spade+-+an+inspiring+project Thanks to the WMC Fest I came in contact with a couple of awesome designers. Simon Birky Hartmann is one of those designers, with his studio he was also a part of the design show which was held at the festival. Together with Jon Savage he runs the design firm Studio Ace of Spade. Recently (during the WMC Fest) they released an incredible and inspiring self-initiated project called 13 Spade which I would like to highlight. Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:16:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/13+spade+-+an+inspiring+project http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/new+album+from+steven+wilson+-+grace+for+drowning I am not someone who normally goes into hyper mode about these kind of things but this is one of the rare exceptions. Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of Steven Wilson his music and the man himself as an artist. So you can imagine how stoked I was about the official announcement of his new solo-album coming out. Another man who I think is a genius artist is Lasse Hoile, who is a long-term collaborator responsible for all (or practically most of) the art for Steven Wilson. I find the duo simply remarkable for their art. Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:21:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/new+album+from+steven+wilson+-+grace+for+drowning http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/gazpacho+-+inspirational+in+more+than+just+their+music When I worked on this post I ended up writing about the music section of my blog to start with. That starting text turned out to be quite large, so much in fact that I decided to just post it online as a whole item. So following up on that earlier post here is a new blog item about another one of my favorite bands, namely: Gazpacho. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:11:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/gazpacho+-+inspirational+in+more+than+just+their+music http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/the+music+section+on+my+blog With this post I would like to go into the music section of my blog for a bit. When I started this blog back in September 2010 I figured it would be interesting to categorize my posts in the three separate sections: inspirational, music and personal. I think the first and last sections are quite obvious, even though the first can be widely interpreted. The music category however is one I have been constantly pondering about. Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:42:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/the+music+section+on+my+blog http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/new+heartsurge+exhibit+awakening A couple of weeks ago I joined the online art collective: Heartsurge. When I was accepted I found out that the collective was very close to releasing a new exhibition and of course I just had to get a piece in there as well. Yesterday Heartsurge released the forth exhibition named Awakening along with a brand new website and I actually managed to get my very first submission into this new exhibition. Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:34:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/new+heartsurge+exhibit+awakening http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/looking+back+at+the+wmc+fest The Weapons of Mass Creation festival was held a couple of days ago in Cleveland Ohio. The reason why I am sharing that with you is because my work was - as you may know - exhibited in the design show there. Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:55:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/looking+back+at+the+wmc+fest http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/fantasy+architecture+-+the+stunning+work+of+antoni+gaudi Architecture is not something I would normally write about, but this time I want to make an exception. As you may known: last week I attended the digital arts festival OFFF in Barcelona (which was epic). Of course we also had to go sightseeing while we were there, my girl told me we definitely had to go check out Gaudi his work at least. I had not even heard of it before and it was supposed to be fantastic. Now the reason why I want to make an exception with this post is because I found it absolutely amazing. Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:09:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/fantasy+architecture+-+the+stunning+work+of+antoni+gaudi http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/visual+narratives+-+the+art+of+michael+cina It has been a while since I last posted an inspiration item so I figured it was about time I made one. For it I selected the magnificent work of Michael Cina, because it is definitely a must-see. I would actually like to go as far as to say that I find Michael an artistic genius with acrylic and minerals on paper/canvas. Wed, 25 May 2011 13:38:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/visual+narratives+-+the+art+of+michael+cina http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/my+art+at+the+weapons+of+mass+creation+fest Last week I received the incredible news that I had won a spot in the design show at the Weapons of Mass Creation festival - WMC Fest for short - which still makes me spin my hoops in excitement like a madman. My many thanks go out to all of you who supported me in achieving this, I appreciate it everyone! I also want to thank to good people from Go Media and Jeff Finley in particular for this opportunity and everything they have done so far. Wed, 11 May 2011 13:04:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/my+art+at+the+weapons+of+mass+creation+fest http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/breaking+down+two+new+album+art+concepts+part+ii As I promised last week, here is the build-up of the second CD design. If you missed part I then be sure to check that out first. Wed, 04 May 2011 11:45:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/breaking+down+two+new+album+art+concepts+part+ii http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/breaking+down+two+new+album+art+concepts+part+i These are two unused CD design concepts I had lying around. I am personally quite satisfied with them so I figured I would post them up so they do not go to waste entirely. I also wanted to show some more new stuff I have been working on, so here goes. In order to give this post some more body I will show you the build-up of these two album art designs. Because of the length of this post I decided I will put it up on my blog in two parts. Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:24:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/breaking+down+two+new+album+art+concepts+part+i http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/exposition+in+review+-+beeldend+veenendaal+2011 I have written about the exposition quite often over the past few weeks, but that will come to an end with this post because the exposition his official award and closing ceremony was held this Saturday. The exposition was held during the first two weeks of April and those two weeks went by incredibly fast. For those who dive into this post completely blank: I was one of the participants in this year his edition of the annual exposition Beeldend Veenendaal. Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:27:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/exposition+in+review+-+beeldend+veenendaal+2011 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/mailbox+feature+exposure+for+the+exposition+in+advanced+photoshop+36 After having posted some tweets regarding my exposition piece the editors of Advanced Photoshop magazine demanded a better sneak peak of it. Saying that I should take a picture with me standing next to it in order to view it in the right perspective (because of its size: A1format). At the time I did not want to disclose the whole thing until after the exposition, however, I was willing to feed their editorial hunger in private with them. Long story, short: after that message they asked me if I was interested in having my exposition piece placed in the mailbox section of their April issue. Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:51:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/mailbox+feature+exposure+for+the+exposition+in+advanced+photoshop+36 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/featured+in+publish+magazine As I mentioned in an earlier post I am featured in the current issue of Publish magazine. I have been sitting on this fantastic piece of news for quite a while now as it was in January that I had contact with the magazine. It is a two-monthly magazine, hence the waiting. Anyway, it is out now and I am very excited about finally being able to share it with you. Here are a few photographs of my feature in Publish magazine. Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:12:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/featured+in+publish+magazine http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+surreal+art+of+naoto+hattori The first time I saw Naoto his work I was absolutely baffled. When you show me surreal art like this, then you will have my utmost attention. His way of working is incredible, one I deeply connect with when it comes to my personal work. As he personally states, he tries not to label his work or think about what it is supposed to be. He just takes it all in and creates whatever he wants without holding back. That is something I compliment and appreciate in any form of art. That is also how I approach my own personal art projects. Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:09:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+surreal+art+of+naoto+hattori http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/moving+to+a+new+place+of+inspiration Earlier today on Twitter I said that I have some incredibly exciting personal news to share, so here goes: after a dreadful long search my girlfriend and I have finally found a new apartment! Boo-yah. If you are wondering: Who cares, then this post is clearly not for you. I am extremely excited about this and I figured I would share this with you and provide you with a closer look into some of my non-design related stuff. Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:02:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/moving+to+a+new+place+of+inspiration http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/graffuturism+-+getting+it+out+there About two weeks ago I stumbled across this incredible website and blog focused entirely on graffiti, street art, murals and the occasional kick-ass painting. As you may know, I am a huge fan of those art forms, so I was swinging my hoops big time when I found this site. So much in fact that I decided I had to share this with you. Graffuturism highlights remarkable work and artists in the field and it is definitely worth your time browsing. Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:26:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/graffuturism+-+getting+it+out+there http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/news+update+-+things+that+have+kept+me+busy As I promised earlier, here are a few exciting bits of news. February has been an busy month with lots of interesting things. Anyway, aside from the list of news updates I also want to use this post to give you some sneak-preview hints of the artwork I have made for an upcoming local exposition. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:21:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/news+update+-+things+that+have+kept+me+busy http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/about+my+blog+and+what+to+expect This month has been a quiet one in terms of my blog, my reasons being a busy schedule as well as the scraping of some posts I intended to make. While thinking about these posts I asked myself: Why and for who am I writing the posts? So I want to use this one to clarify the expectations of my blog, based on some messages I received and my own thoughts. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:29:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/about+my+blog+and+what+to+expect http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/blue2+album+art+-+the+story+behind+this+cover+design Precisely a year ago Andrew Danso contacted me about an awesome new project he was working on: his second solo album (or actually his new EP) for which he asked me to do the cover design. I happily took the job and started working on the album art. We are a year further now, the EP is still coming up and the entire project went through a lot over the past year. Last week we decided to revamp the entire album art for several reasons and because I did not want to waste the first cover design I am hereby sharing it with you. Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:06:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/blue2+album+art+-+the+story+behind+this+cover+design http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/graphic+fury+throw+bricks+into+the+design+industry After watching this fantastic video about letterpress I went to check out Benoit Ollive his website and I was absolutely baffled by his work and concepts. I have a huge interest in street art and other tangible forms of conceptual art, so I literally lost track of time while browsing through Benoit his work. Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/graphic+fury+throw+bricks+into+the+design+industry http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/screenfunk+groovy+design+artwork+for+your+screen Past Friday I got accepted by screenfunk, an awesome website and team of designers focused on creating art for the iPhone and iPad screens. I was pretty excited about joining the team because there are a bunch of inspirational artists connected to screenfunk, so it will be a great opportunity for me to meet some new talented people. Of course it is also a great place for me to get some fantastic wallpapers for my own screen. Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:40:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/screenfunk+groovy+design+artwork+for+your+screen http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/going+freelance+-+pursuing+my+dreams+and+ambitions+as+a+graphic+designer I am very excited to share this great news with you: starting February I will actively focus on my career as an independent artist. This was a big step and change for me, one which I have been pondering over for quite a bit now. So I am very proud to announce that I have finally decided to take the leap and become a freelance graphic designer. Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:24:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/going+freelance+-+pursuing+my+dreams+and+ambitions+as+a+graphic+designer http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/luke+beard+a+inspiring+designer Past September I came across Lukes everyday project called A Lyric a Day which really struck me as awesome. I mentioned that on Twitter back then but I figured I would devote a blog post to this wicked awesome designer from the UK as well. Thu, 30 Dec 2010 11:55:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/luke+beard+a+inspiring+designer http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/marillion+a+remarkable+band It occurred to me that I am constantly talking about how music influences my work, so I figured it was about time I wrote another musical post on my blog. For this post I have picked one of my favorite bands and a major influence on an inspirational level, namely: Marillion. I am not just talking about any band here because Marillion is a huge name in the scene and it is a band with a very extensive history. After all, they are playing for over 30 years now (1979-present). Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:01:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/marillion+a+remarkable+band http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+zonders+music+and+art The Zonders is an international artist collective founded by Dieter Dunkel and Wolfgang 3000. They are influenced by music and it is their pleasure to create a visual output in a profession between surrealism and society. I find these guys insanely inspirational. After all it is no big secret that a lot of my inspiration comes from music, in fact there are quite a number of personal projects which reflect my own visual interpretations of music. Besides that I am really drawn to the surrealistic art they create, it is just awesome. Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:19:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+zonders+music+and+art http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+art+of+michael+ostermann I have had some great and inspirational talks with this guys about all sorts of things related to art and design. A while back I came across Michael and his work on Flickr and what instantly caught my interest was the style he uses in his work. His technique for blending photo manipulation with illustration and drawing is awesome. Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:27:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+art+of+michael+ostermann http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/attending+offf+2011+barcelona Here is a little personal update of me regarding the OFFF festival of next year, which is going to be epic. In 2011 I am heading over to the OFFF festival in Barcelona. It will be 3 days filled with art, design, talks and meetings with awesome creative people. Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:58:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/attending+offf+2011+barcelona http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/tutorial+create+an+abstract+composition I have originally written this tutorial in Dutch for ARTR who commissioned me to create a tutorial piece. I did not want to neglect you non-Dutch speaking people so hereby I am offering you an English tutorial on how to create an abstract composition. One other thing before I start: you can also download a wallpaper pack (with various resolutions) of this artwork right here. Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:52:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/tutorial+create+an+abstract+composition http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/featured+in+advanced+photoshop+nl+32 I have mentioned this before but here is the official post including some photographic proof. My work is featured in the Dutch Advanced Photoshop magazine issue 32. This is very exciting for me because it is the first magazine publication showcasing my digital art instead of my web designs. I am really stoked about this and I want to thank the good people over at Advanced Photoshop for this amazing feature. Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:00:00 +0100 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/featured+in+advanced+photoshop+nl+32 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/moody+photography+by+garmonique+and+kim+holtermand These are two totally different guys both with a photographic style and color setting which I am really drawn to. They have not inspired me personally, however, they did catch my eye with their wicked awesome work. I enjoy looking at their photographs very much so I figured I would share it with you. Perhaps it is not the happiest of styles but their work is incredible nonetheless. Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:25:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/moody+photography+by+garmonique+and+kim+holtermand http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/in+the+meantime Here is a personal update. It has been a month now since I launched this new website and I want to thank you all for the wonderful response to that. I have been getting awesome e-mails, tweets and other sorts of messages and I really appreciate that. Also, I have had some great features the past month and I have got an even bigger one coming up, namely a feature in Advanced Photoshop. Sat, 16 Oct 2010 15:42:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/in+the+meantime http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/extraordinary+art+by+roger+dean I am going to dive pretty far back into my pursuit at a creative career by writing about a guy who had a huge influence on me. In an earlier post about James White I referred to Roger Dean as one of my favorite artists and I figured I should write a blog post about him and his art as well, after all, this man is artistically genius. Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:05:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/extraordinary+art+by+roger+dean http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+art+of+eric+van+den+boom Eric is a fellow countryman working as an illustrator and graphic designer under the name BoomArtwork. I came in contact with his work quite a while back now when I saw his graduation project, The Great Carnival. The size and general awesomeness of that project really impressed me. Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:16:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/the+art+of+eric+van+den+boom http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/steven+wilson+inspirational+music Working hard and holding on tight to your own course. That is what Steven Wilson has always done and still does, he is a rebel to the mass and an inspirational person. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:07:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/music/steven+wilson+inspirational+music http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/james+white+a+remarkable+designer I have been a fan of James White and his work for quite some time now. He has had a big influence on me and my work to be perfectly honest. Not directly in a design style kind-of-way, but more as a person and the way he does things. His approach at being a visual artist is incredibly inspirational. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:43:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/james+white+a+remarkable+designer http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/avantgarde+by+maxime+quoilin A while back now I came across this amazing project on the Behance Network by Belgian designer Maxime Quoilin and I was instantly struck by its awesomeness. The project consists out of 4 marvelously designed artworks which have a somewhat minimalistic feel to it, but the details in the pieces are absolutely brilliant. Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:42:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/inspirational/avantgarde+by+maxime+quoilin http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/my+new+international+website In my opinion it was long overdue, but here it finally is: my new English website. Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:40:00 +0200 http://www.mkleyne.com/blog/personal/my+new+international+website